Put the lime in the coconut... or not.

My Saturday night? Well it consisted of daddy playing with Graciella and mama feeling too exhausted from work to even move. I am t i r e d. And when I say tired, I mean tired.

Then I was kindly reminded that we had bought a fresh coconut at whole foods yesterday and that I promised to make coconut milk for our smoothies & cereal. Okay. Good thing it's pretty simple to do.

I'm sure we've all heard the raves over coconut this, coconut that. It truly is a super food. And we love coconut anything in this house. From oil, to shreds, to milk. I particularly love coconut milk for the creaminess it adds to our smoothies and all of the good fats it contains.

Fun fact: The fats in coconut milk are the same healthy fats found in human breast milk. How neat is that?

Here's what you'll need: 

A young coconut (young coconuts have the most water content which you'll be using all of. Their flesh is also softer)
A metal spoon for scraping - I used a large serving spoon.

A sharp chefs knife. Emphasis on sharp.
A blender. I have a ninja but I imagine any kind would work well for this milk.

A glass air tight container to store the milk in. I found mine at good will a few months back. Score.

I use this brand. It's sold at most health food stores in my area and some regular grocery stores as well. It has a lot of water inside, good soft flesh and isn't the hardest thing in the world to crack (but a close second... heh)

On to the milk making... *non human* :p

First: You're gonna want to shave off some of the outside flesh so you can get to the hard-as-rock part. Like this.

Second: Take hold of the coconut with one hand, and with the other hit it several times on all four sides hard. I mean with all your strength kind of hard. Whack that thing like a lumberjack on an old oak. Once you break through, you can stick the tip of the knife in, and press downward, pushing up on the coconut till the top pops off. A good young coconut should be full to the top with deliciously nutritious coconut water. Now, you can drink this by itself, and trust me - I'm always tempted. But right now, we're making milk. So toss all of it into the blender.

Third: Now, we're left with all that wonderful, healthy fat containing, creamy-butter-like textured white coconut flesh. Time to scrape all that goodness out! I find using the back of a metal spoon works well for me. Use the back to scrape all the way around and then pull out all that healthy good stuff.

Fourth: Toss that lovely coconut flesh into your blender with the coconut water and blend away. A few minutes should do it - till it looks creamy & smooth.

That here folks is how you make fresh, homemade, healthy & delicious coconut milk.

Store in your glass air tight container in the fridge. I'd say it lasts about a week or two, but it's always gone within a few days in my house. So who knows. ;)